Chicago Union makes ETHS's Lazier Field its 2026 home field

Lazier Field got the kind of national attention most high school venues never see: a SportsCenter Top Ten moment, then a full-season commitment from the Chicago Union. The pro ultimate club said its 2026 home games would be played at Evanston Township High School’s field at 2285 Church St. in Evanston, turning a school campus into a more visible home base. The move followed two seasons at Northwestern University’s Martin Stadium, after the Union had already been based in Evanston since 2024.

That matters because this is more than a venue shuffle. The Ultimate Frisbee Association now has 23 franchises, and the Union’s shift to Lazier Field gave one of the league’s most established clubs a setting that felt local instead of borrowed. The field’s recent national exposure also gave the team something pro ultimate rarely gets: a clip that reached outside the existing fan base and made the sport look big enough to belong on a mainstream stage.

The game-day setup is built for accessibility. Union ticket information lists prices starting at $11, with children 5 and under admitted free. Gates open 30 minutes before kickoff, free parking is available in the school lot, and the clear-bag policy allows bags up to 12 inches by 6 inches by 12 inches or one-gallon Ziploc bags. For a team trying to convert curiosity into repeat customers, those details matter as much as any highlight reel.

Lazier Field also carries weight in Evanston beyond the Union. The name ties back to Murney Lazier, a historic Evanston football coach, which gives the venue a deeper school-sports identity even as it hosts pro ultimate. Northwestern used the site for a “Kits, Cats and Kids” block party on September 4, 2025, another sign the field had already become a broader athletics and community venue before the Union’s full-season move.

There is a civic wrinkle, too. An Evanston RoundTable report said the Union, based in Evanston since 2024, had not been paying ticket taxes because of confusion over overlapping tax rates. That kind of off-field detail is usually noise, but here it underlines the same point as the SportsCenter appearance: the Union is no longer operating at the margins. It is part of the local economy, the local schedule and, increasingly, the local conversation.

ETHS’s own boys ultimate program, coached by Emily Wehrwein in USA Ultimate listings, adds another layer. If the Union can turn a loud home crowd at Lazier Field into a habit instead of a one-night spike, the field’s ESPN moment could end up mattering far beyond one highlight.